IT was after the false harlot, the apostate church, had met her richly-deserved doom that John was given a vision of the true Church, as a great city built upon the foundation of the apostles of the Lamb, and surrounded by a wall great and high. The wall speaks of security and of separation. The inhabitants of that city will be protected from all evil and forever separate from all that is unholy. Yet its gates of pearl will be open to all who wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.
It may not be possible to explain satisfactorily all the wondrous symbolism of this description of our heavenly home, but what Christian heart does not beat a little faster as we read of its glory and its magnificence! What a glad consummation to our years of pilgrimage and testing when we all gather home together to go no more out for eternity! There we shall behold the King in His beauty and shall dwell in the light of His countenance throughout eternity.
“City of the pearl-bright portal;
City of the jasper wall;
City of the golden pavement;
Seat of endless festival.
City of Jehovah, Salem,
City of eternity,
To thy bridal-hall of gladness,
From this prison would I flee,
Heir of glory,
That shall be for thee and me?”
—H. Boner.